I find myself looking to Robert Frost’s Birches, perusing old Victoria magazines, and watching You’ve Got Mail. Joe Fox’s email to Kathleen Kelly about Autumn in New York, where he writes that “I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address”, always makes me want to sharpen a dozen number 2 pencils to perfect points and place them in a vase with a bowl of candy corn nearby.
These crisp Autumn nights, how sweet they are, spending cozy hours rustling through old, battered cookbooks, looking for hearty soups to simmer and muffins to bake.
It is that crunchy time of year along the Cutoff. Time for taffy apples and raking leaves, with the primal chorus of Canadian geese casting passing shadows on the earth below as their lofty caravans migrate south.
It is gorgeously crunchy if you are lucky, Penny: a little squelchy here in the UK. But such a time of fruitfulness. Lovely post.
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We have been lucky for a few days here, Kate, and it looks like a good week ahead of us. Being in the midwest, however, we know it can change in a few hours. I hope your squelchy weather changes for the better. Thank you.
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Dear Penny, the air is crisp with autumn here. The sun mellow. It’s a special time of year. Of endings that segue into beginnings. And these beginnings are all the things we take anew when winter cloaks our land. So I find myself today delighting in sun and air and the feel of breeze on my face. You have captured the time so beautifully. You have, Penny, such an affinity for nature. Thank you for sharing that passion with us. Peace.
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It is a special time of year, Dee, with winter lurking just around the bend. You are wise to delight in the good fall weather that is at hand, and I thank you for your very nice compliments.
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My heavens, woman, you are writing from some pretty wonderful place. 🙂
I love these phrases you’ve chosen to share your days. A primal chorus of Canada geese in their caravans is such a good image.
You’ve Got Mail…might be time for a re-viewing. 😉
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Thank you, Teresa. I do appreciate you kind words here.
I can watch this movie over and over again.
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I need to find some crunchy this year, Penny. We go straight from summer to winter, it seems. Not much of a leaf show. We have been able to sleep with the window open some this week.
We will be going to Milwaukee between Christmas and New Year’s. I am determined to sled and walk out on a frozen lake, two things I’ve never done as a Southerner.
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Isn’t it a treat to be able to sleep with the windows open? The tree frogs were having quite a party last night, which I could hear with our windows open, but, I don’t mind at all.
Oh, you’ll most likely get a chance for some of that, Andra, when you visit Milwaukee at the holidays. I’m sure MTM will prep you for dressing warm.
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Oh Penny. I’ll borrow your brand of crunch and enjoy it from afar! We have crunchy weather, too, but not because of autumn. Southern California has what we alternately call either “Indian Summer” or “Fire Season.” I won’t bother to say more, but we are not experiencing Autumn quite yet. I was out all day today near the beach in complete summer weather clothing. I didn’t think I would get there, but I’m ready to concede and say “let’s move on” to cooler weather! 🙂 I love the Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks version of that sweet movie. Such wonderful dialogue! I’m glad you’re enjoying the fall weather and hope you get a nice long season before winter hits! 🙂
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Borrow away, Debra! After our scorching, dry summer here, we are enjoying the change and I hope you will have cooler weather soon there on the west coast. Isn’t the dialogue great in You’ve Got Mail? Nora Ephron has left us all some great writing, hasn’t she? I enjoy one of the original versions, The Shop Around the Corner as well – but, I confess to being a huge Jimmy Stewart fan.
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You evoke the specialness of autumn so beautifully, Penny. Crunchy time describes it perfectly. I love sharpening pencils. I have a set of coloured pencils and I really enjoy sharpening them all at once and admiring the points.
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I can just imagine the rainbow bouquet your colored pencils make, Juliet, and the unique fragrance sharpened pencils can make. I’ll confess, I was the child who enjoyed the classroom chore of emptying the pencil sharpener.
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Penny and John Keats, both bringing lovely autumnal images to mind.
My Friend from Wisconsin, who died last year, taught my husband and I the art of leaf collecting, using the blower, to move the hundreds of thousands of leaves in her yard, to the side of the road for the day the garbage people were coming to take them away. That fall afternoon in 2010 will stay with me forever, we had such a laugh as she instructed us….. we Brits, clearly had no idea at all.
A lovely post Penny, thanks.
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I’m sure that is one of many memories, Janice, but, an especially sweet one in fall. It is coming up on a year soon, isn’t it? I’m sure most of the world has no idea of the lengths we go with our leaves. tee hee
Thank you, Janice.
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It is not yet crunchy here in Central Illinois. We have had light frost a couple of times so the color is starting to peek through. Actually, it is greener here than most of our dry summer, but Autumn is upon us but most of our days are in the 70s. Your beautiful post makes me look forward to more of the same. Funny, as I first read this, I had a stack of cookbooks out next to me because I was looking for some favorite soup recipes.
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I’m rather enjoying it all after this summer, Janet, but, then I always do enjoy Autumn. I’m sure you will start to see color soon. I must admit to being pleasantly surprised that we are getting some good color here after the dryness. The yellows are really coming out, the reds of the sumac, of course, and the orange color that some maples get, too. Then, again, we need to start raking up leaves!
Oh, that’s funny about the cookbooks. We’re on the same wavelength! It’s that time of year, isn’t it, for soup, soup, and more soup?
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Ok, I spoke too soon. We went to Canton, Il after church today and the colors were gorgeous. They came out overnight. The Spoon River area was so pretty, I didn’t want the drive to be over. On the way home, the sun was setting and there was a little piece of a rainbow in the sky just above a beautiful, colorful tree line on the horizon. I love autumn.
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Isn’t it just like fall to hide behind the trees one day and then light them up the next? I’m so glad your colors are changing there, Janet, and that you came back to tell us. The “little piece of a rainbow” – an extra special treat. I wish we could bottle Autumn, but, then it wouldn’t be as special. I love it, too.
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Penny, I’ve just caught up with a week’s worth of your wonderful posts – so varied in their subject matter, but each beautifully-written and very thought-provoking. They are worth of individual comments, but I’m so behind because of my phone-line and broadband problems, that you have to excuse this catch-all for once. 🙂
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Oh, Perpetua, I’m just happy to see your name and your picture here today. I’m rather behind, myself, and sorry that you’re having technical problems, and pleased that you took the time to read me. Take care.
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I think the calendar has brought us all to a similar place. I baked a Delicata squash for dinner one evening last week; with just a touch of brown sugar, it was delicious! When Kim and I were in the grocery Friday, we both voiced the thought that chili was sounding like a distinct possibility . . . maybe this week?
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Ooo, that Delicata squash sound heavenly, Karen. I will have to do that soon. Funny, I’ve been thinking of making chili as well. The time has come…
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I am needing some cool weather to get excited about Fall … it is still so warm here (for Oregon)…. but this afternoon I did notice acorns on the ground, so fall weather must be coming.
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Acorns are sure sign of Fall coming. It is that first crispness of weather that sets us to our stews and soups, even when we know more heat can come.
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Exactly.
We are all very much the same, all of us living in the northern hemisphere. Autumn is special, a last hurrah before the onset of the drab season (for us anyway). Stews and soups and fires and curtains drawn and maybe an extra glass of something heartwarming to sip while reminiscing about the pleasures of the past year and, maybe?, making plans for the pleasures to come.
Actually, I like the change-over from the one season to the next at any time of year, time for new hope?
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I enjoy the change-over from season to season as well, Friko. Our winters can be pretty harsh here, but, the first snowfall comes and I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl, the feeling being replaced when the first of the snowdrops peak through, and on we go. I think you are right. Changing seasons bring on new hope.
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You paint a lovely picture of autumn Penny! It’s my favorite time of year and we’ve had a gorgeous one so far – even with the cold today.
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Thank you, Janet. Me too. I love the feel, the smell, the colors of Autumn. Enjoy.
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